Now I know as we see in game on Halo 3, we can see Marines and Aliens be infected by an infection form and be completely turned and transformed in almost an instant, but is this really the case? In Halo CE and 2 we see that infection forms kill a single host together in hordes by clinging to the host and killing it. This could be done by a single infection form or more, then as we saw in Halo CE, the infection forms would generally stick to the host and would stay that way unless disturbed, we see this on the levels 343 Guilty Spark with a solo Marine being grouped by a few infection forms, the Marine died almost instantly and the forms that killed him stuck to his body like glue and would not attack the player unless provoked, we also see this on Two Betrayals where we see a dead elite with a group of infection forms all over the body. Once again they do not attack the player unless provoked, you also see this done to Grunts throughout the later half of the game but it’s inconsistent whether they stick or jump off to attack the player. We would even see the flood gather uninfected covenant bodies in the corners, as if they’re waiting for the bodies to fully transform. We don’t see much of this in Halo 2 but it does show the infection forms cling to the host by itself or with more and then kill the host, however they never stick but I think that’s due to Halo 2’s engine and the fact that the engine is held together by tape and rubber bands. We even see in a cutscene where The Prophet of Mercy is slowly strangled by an infection form, notice it doesn’t try to penetrate the chest rather it trys to kill the host before infection; so why did this change in Halo 3? To be honest with you I dont like what they did with the Flood in Halo 3, it never made sense to me that a flimsy infection form could penetrate through any form of armor or be able to manage ripping into and burrowing inside a live host’s chest cavity, especially in the short time it does in Halo 3, like in real life that be impossible if the guy wasn’t alone and he had a buddy to shoot it off. Second instant tranformation, does not make any sense, I dont care how fast a super cell works, it takes time for a foreign invader to alter a hosts dna structure to melt organs and rearrange bones and on top of that take over the entire nervous system! IT DONT MAKE NO SENSE G!!! My initial question was gonna be “Can they really infect that fast in the lore” but after that I just wrote I’m changing it to “Why did they change at all to something totally unrealistic, why and how did the flood change, and why did bungie change them?”
Infection forms have been known to fight over who gets to possess a host before (I think somewhere in the novel Halo: The Flood, basically a novelization of Halo CE). This could explain why marines and elites were being swarmed by clusters of infection forms. In regards to Grunts and Prophets, I’m unsure where it’s stated but I know that somewhere it says that species of their ilk are too weak to be turned into combat forms, hence why we don’t see them getting infected.
I don’t think in Halo 3 that they’re piercing the armor. In Halo: The Flood, a stray infection form slips through and almost infects Chief by cutting through a weak spot on his armor. I think a similar thing happens to marines and elites in Halo 3 but the engine isn’t detailed enough to show this so it appears that they’re infecting through armor. As for the instant transformation, well the flood are basically zombies and that’s what zombies do, unrealistic or otherwise. If transformations were slower in the old games (I’m not sure we even see a transformation in the old games but feel free to correct me it’s been awhile since I’ve played them), Bungie may have sped up the process to match the current zombie trend. I think the zombie rage was around Halo 3’s time but I don’t know. As for why Bungie changed it (if they did change), who knows, but if recent events have proven anything, it’s that Bungie can change whatever it wants and get away with it in most circles, which could be why they do it so carefree.
On the Mona Lisa, the Flood scratches a woman, and almost instantly, a glob of Flood biomass forms in the wound, but after it’s removed She still switches from being alive to being a Combat form in moments.
The Flood seems to use different methods of creating Combat forms depending on the circumstances, and some take more time than others.
I believe it depends on the stage of the current flood outbreak. Like in stage 1 the feral stage, I believe the Flood focus all of their attention on living potential hosts rather than waste precious infection forms on the dead which can be harvested later for flood biomass. No, when the flood numbers are so few in the early part of the feral stage I believe it might be in the Flood’s best interest to only target strong living hosts while coming back for the bodies of the dead later. In the begining of the outbreak in Halo Combat Evolved, the Flood were definitely in this feral stage and the crazed Marine even confirms this: “Played dead! That’s what I did, played dead. They took the live ones!”
Also as detailed by both Jenkins and Captain Keys I believe the infection process is slow and takes time creating a sturdier combat form that has better chances of being victorious in combat and getting more bodies for the Flood.
Towards the end of Halo 1 and definitely at the end of Halo 2 the Flood was now in the coordinated stage. A Gravemind had been formed or still existed from many years ago and the Flood start to put the corpses collected to more use. Infection/conversion of the bodies still takes time but in this stage you will see infection forms re enter the bodies of fallen combat forms to “revive them”.
In Halo 3, the Flood has gained enough strength in numbers and intelligence that it has switched its focus to converting as much as it can as fast as it can. In Halo 3 you see humans and Elites being converted in seconds which while exponentially increasing the rate at which the Flood spreads leads to less than sturdy combat forms. The rapid decay and conversion of the flesh makes these combat forms a bit softer than the ones from combat evolved. A blast of sufficient force can quickly destroy these forms. This is a small sacrifice for the pure numbers the Flood will gather. It is also at this stage that the Flood has started to generate pure forms that can serve a number of purposes.